Microspace. Universe. Lore.

Month: April 2017

The FAC-4 (‘Fast Action Corvette’) is an Illayko capital ship. Hundreds were built for the defense against Wun’Tux aggression and most were destroyed in the conflict; the surviving vessels are effective weapons in the hands of Illayko bounty hunters and privateers.

Like the P-22 Warspite, the FAC-4 is designed primarily as an attack ship. Its weapons excel at finding weak spots in the enemy flank and its speed and maneuverability are meant to help this happen. This quality became the ship’s Achilles heel when the IDF were forced to fight a defensive war against the Wun’Tux; the ship was simply not suited to the stubborn and grinding defensive war forced upon it by the reptilian invaders.

Following the fall of Ehoi the surviving ships followed the huge civilian convoy in retreat. Surviving Illayko blamed the military for their defeat and subsequent suffering; several ship captains refused to stand for such ill treatment and made off to the Gnobo border to find work as pirate hunters, mercenaries and privateers.
The FAC-4 rediscovered success in this role; unchained from the ill suited defensive role which made it so frail. The comparatively old corvettes needed only brief retro-refits until they were more than a match for the variety of thieves, bandits and highwaymen of the lawless border territories between Gnobo, Oroso and Human colonies. Ex-Military Illayko make formidable pirates or pirate hunters; they often combine FAC-4s with a lance of P-22 Warspites with deadly consequences.